Thistles

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Silver thistle

As thistles are colloquially with thorns reinforced, "spiky" plants referred. The word goes back to Indo-European origins and means something like "pointed" or "sting".

species

Thistle seeds

Thistle is in botany a unique name, but a name component in various types and genres of Carduoideae , a subfamily of the daisy family ( Asteraceae ):

Because of their similar habitus , the cards ( Dipsacus ) and the man litter ( Eryngium ) are sometimes referred to colloquially as thistles.

Thistles in heraldry

Nancy coat of arms

The thistle is a common figure in heraldry and, like the heraldic rose and lily, is one of the most famous heraldic flowers. Thistles are the national flowers of Scotland . They can be found both in the coat of arms of Scotland and in the Order of Thistles . In addition, many sports clubs in Scotland are named after the thistles; best known representative is Partick Thistle . The thistle is also an emblem of the Encyclopædia Britannica , which originated in Edinburgh .

Literary references

  • In the song The Thistle o 'Scotland , the plant is used as a metaphor for the pride and steadfastness of the Scots:

"It's the flowret the proud eagle greets in his flight,
as he covers the sun with the wings of his might.
It's the flowret that laughs at the storm as it blows,
for the stronger the tempest, the greener it grows! "

- folk song

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dietmar Aichele, Renate Aichele, Hans-Werner Schwegler, Anneliese Schwegler: The cosmos plant guide. Flowering plants, ferns, mosses, lichen, mushrooms, algae. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-86047-394-8 , p. 363.